Antigen Gene Cloning and Expression of HIV-1 Toward AIDS Vaccine Design Ⅱ.Subtype Classification and Quasi-species Identification of HIV-1

Objective: To analyze subtypes and quasi-species of isolatedviruses from HIV-1 infected individuals among the populationof Guangdong Province, for understanding the molecularepidemiological dynamics of local HIV-1 isolates, thus laying afoundation for designing a candidate AIDS vaccine. Methods: By hetero-duplex mobility assay (HMA) andsingle strand conformation poly-morphism (SSCP) analysison amplicons from single-primed polymerase chain reaction(SP-PCR), subtypes and quasi-species of tested HIV-1 isolateswere elucidated, and amplicons were sequenced forconfirmation. Results: Specific amplicons from different subtypes andquasi-species of HIV-1 could be discernible by HMA andSSCP analysis. Conclusion: HIV-1 isolates from different patients might beeither a different subtype or an identical subtype, and HIV-1isolates from an individual were present in a population ofquasi-species.

Error Thresholds in Single-Peak Gaussian Distributed Fitness Landscapes

Based on the Eigen and Crow-Kimura models with a single-peak fitness landscape, we propose the fitness values of all sequence types to be Gausslan distributed random variables to incorporate the effects of the fluctuations of the fitness landscapes （noise of environments） and investigate the concentration distribution and error threshold of quasispecies by performing an ensemble average within this theoretical framework. We find that a small fluctuation of the fitness landscape causes only a slight change in the concentration distribution and error threshold, which implies that the error threshold is stable against small perturbations. However, for a sizable fluctuation, quite different from the previous deterministic models, our statistical results show that the transition from quasi-species to error catastrophe is not so sharp, indicating that the error threshold is located within a certain range and has a shift toward a larger value. Our results are qualitatively in agreement with the experimental data and provide a new implication for antiviral strategies.

Pragmatic turn in biology: From biological molecules to genetic content operators

Erwin Schrdinger‘s question "What is life?" received the answer for decades of "physics + chemistry". The concepts of Alain Turing and John von Neumann introduced a third term: "information". This led to the understanding of nucleic acid sequences as a natural code. Manfred Eigen adapted the concept of Hammings "sequence space". Similar to Hilbert space, in which every ontological entity could be defined by an unequivocal point in a mathematical axiomatic system, in the abstract "sequence space" concept each point represents a unique syntactic structure and the value of their separation represents their dissimilarity. In this concept molecular features of the genetic code evolve by means of self-organisation of matter. Biological selection determines the fittest types among varieties of replication errors of quasi-species. The quasi-species concept dominated evolution theory for many decades. In contrast to this, recent empirical data on the evolution of DNA and its forerunners, the RNA-world and viruses indicate cooperative agent-based interactions. Group behaviour of quasi-species consortia constitute de novo and arrange available genetic content for adaptational purposes within real-life contexts that determine epigenetic markings. This review focuses on some fundamental changes in biology, discarding its traditional status as a subdiscipline of physics and chemistry.